Dormitory Secrets

Guaidan Cores looked roughly similar, but because they were extracted from different Guaidans, the extraordinary abilities awakened upon consuming them also had specific tendencies. Tang Nianke was a classic example. Her awakened extraordinary ability was almost identical to that of the mutated black-clothed workers, which was why Tan Ji believed she was a mutated monster until his death.

But there were always exceptions. If a certain inner desire was too intense, it could alter the tendency of the awakening. For example, Ye Yu's symbiosis, and Wang Xia's super-reflex ability.

Before Ye Yu gave the Tier 2 Guaidan Cores to the two, she only wanted to deal with Tan Ji as much as possible without exposing her parents' shadows. It wasn't that she couldn't eat them herself, but she hadn't figured out why this Guaidan domain "produced" so many Tier 1 Guaidan Cores. Her relationship with Tang Nianke and Wang Xia hadn't reached the point where she would shoulder such a huge risk for them. So she had left the choice to them.

She hadn't expected it to create a bizarre superpower like Wang Xia's. This kid... just how cowardly did he have to be to awaken such an ability? Elementary school students nowadays didn't even need reflex training anymore!

*

As the dagger plunged into his temple like a venomous snake, Tan Ji's body suddenly convulsed, and the light in his eyes gradually faded. A second later, his silent corpse was spat out of the mirror, hitting the ground with a loud thud.

Thus, through the early wear-and-tear by Tang Nianke and Wang Xia, combined with Ye Yu's finishing sneak attack, three individuals with Tier 1 extraordinary abilities had successfully killed Tan Ji, a possessor of Tier 3 high-speed movement!

And because Ye Yu had intentionally kept her parents' shadows hidden in the dark mirror space, the instant-kill strike vanished immediately, so Wang Xia didn't see a trace of them. He only vaguely saw Tan Ji being dragged into the mirror space by the Jing Nu, with darkness surging, and the next second, Tan Ji's corpse was spat out. The speed was unimaginably fast!

One had to know that his cousin had fought this bastard for so long, getting covered in blood, and even with his help, they still couldn't subdue Tan Ji, who was as slippery as an eel. Yet Jing Jie killed him in a single strike, and he hadn't even seen how she did it!

The Jing Nu hadn't explained her abilities to him in detail either. To Wang Quan and the others, she only said her mirror could temporarily store living people and items. Previously, Wang Xia only thought Jing Nu was intentionally hiding her ability to travel between mirrors from Wang Quan and the others, not expecting her to hide such prowess from them as well... No, this wasn't called hiding. This could only be said that he was stupid.

Because Jing Nu, though cold-spoken, had always protected them, their frequent interactions had caused him to gradually overlook her terrifying appearance. If he hadn't known Jing Nu's identity beforehand, he probably would have been deceived like Wang Quan and the others, mistakenly believing Jing Nu was just an Extraordinary named Wang Jing.

Uncle Hu had seriously warned them about the terror and danger of high-level Guaidans, but he had forgotten it the moment he turned around. How could a high-level Guaidan like Jing Nu only have storage and movement abilities? The mirror space, which everyone regarded as a safe room and had entered several times to hide, actually harbored such terrifying killing intent!

Fortunately, Jing Nu was sent by Mr. System to save them. Otherwise... with so many of them entering and leaving the mirror before, Jing Nu could have sent them all to their deaths with a single thought!

Wang Xia's breath hitched. The smugness he had felt earlier about his extraordinary ability being highly powerful instantly vanished. After experiencing a battle with Tan Ji and looking at Tan Ji's dead body now, he clearly realized how vast the strength gap was between Jing Nu and them.

Tan Ji could easily choke him, an ordinary person, to death. Even after he and his cousin became Extraordinaries, fighting Tan Ji two-on-one was still extremely difficult. Yet Jing Nu could similarly choke Tan Ji, a Tier 3 Extraordinary, to death with ease. This... was the gap in strength!

Wang Xia was grateful for Jing Nu's help, but human instinct was to feel fear when facing non-human monsters, let alone Guaidans, which were inherently cruel entities that fed on humans. Therefore, alongside his immense gratitude, a deeper dread was buried in Wang Xia's heart. He respected Jing Nu as a powerhouse, but also feared this powerful non-human existence.

Fear Value +300

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+100

*Clatter.* Jing Nu tossed Tan Ji's blood-stained small knife out of the mirror, her voice cold: "Gouge out his Guaidan Core."

Wang Xia, who was about to spout a stream of praise, froze on the spot. When Tan Ji was alive, he wished the man dead, but now he hesitated. At this moment, Tang Nianke hopped over on all fours, raising her claws to help gouge out the Guaidan Core.

Wang Xia was so startled he quickly grabbed her arm: "Wait, let me do this! You rest. Don't move around, be careful not to worsen your injuries."

His cousin had been beaten until she was "meowing" earlier and was now covered in blood; he didn't dare let her move around anymore.

With the enemy dead, Tang Nianke's mind gradually cleared, and a trace of humanity returned to her eyes, though she still bared her sharp claws.

"My claws are more convenient."

Wang Xia didn't yield an inch. "Just listen to me this once, I'll do it!"

Looking at his determined expression, Tang Nianke dazed for a moment and stopped insisting. Clean mineral water, bandages, alcohol, and medicine suddenly fell from the mirror.

"Thank you, Jing Jie!" Wang Xia's eyes lit up, and he immediately urged Tang Nianke to bandage herself first.

Tang Nianke was only a newly awakened Tier 1 Extraordinary. After a fight with Tan Ji, she was already exhausted and didn't persist. As her mind relaxed, the cat fur on her body immediately receded, returning her to her previous half-human, half-cat appearance.

Since she already knew Jing Nu could travel between the outside world and this Guaidan domain, Tang Nianke wasn't surprised by these suddenly appearing items. She figured Jing Nu must have taken the time to prepare them today.

And Jing Nu clearly had these things, yet when Wang Quan and the others were injured earlier, she hadn't mentioned a word. The high-level Guaidan's disregard for other humans was clear. But Tang Nianke felt reassured by this; with such a cold and powerful protector, she and her cousin would definitely escape this wretched place!

On the other side, afraid of keeping Jing Nu waiting, Wang Xia held the small knife and plunged it into the abdomen of Tan Ji's corpse. Then, closing his eyes tightly, he endured the disgust and reached his other intact hand inside. The slimy sensation made Wang Xia gag. Perhaps because the crisis had passed, his old squeamishness had returned.

But his blood-stained hand came up empty; he couldn't find what Jing Nu wanted. A Guaidan Core could be in any part of the human body, and Tan Ji's wasn't in his abdomen.

Wang Xia could only search elsewhere with a bitter face. First, he found a Guaidan Core in Tan Ji's pocket; this must be the extraordinary Guaidan Core of Wu Jie that Wang Quan had taken earlier. Finally, he found a clump of flesh in Tan Ji's chest that looked distinctly different from the other flesh. Right at that moment, the door to the power distribution room was pushed open.

Wang Xia and Tang Nianke immediately looked up warily, only to see Wang Quan and Wu Dazhuang standing outside the door. Catching sight of Tan Ji's mangled corpse on the ground, Wang Xia guiltily hid the Guaidan Core behind his back.

Wu Dazhuang's face was filled with shock: "Tan Ji! You guys actually killed Tan Ji?!"

With the lights in the power distribution room fully on, Wang Quan's gaze swept over everything. She didn't immediately cause trouble, but said in a complex tone: "You... killed Tan Ji."

"When he dared to threaten me, he should have known the price," Jing Nu said gloomily. "What? Do you two want to test the price of angering me as well?"

"No, we don't." Wang Quan reached out to block the furious Wu Dazhuang. She walked into the power distribution room, looking at her former teammate's corpse, a flash of grief in her eyes. Then, all the grief turned into a sigh.

She spoke sincerely: After parting with Tang Nianke and the others, Tan Ji had secretly spoken to her and Wu Dazhuang about Zhao Yang's promotion to manager, avoiding the topic of mutated workers. But just as Jing Nu had said, after thinking it over, Wang Quan also felt this hypothesis was untenable. She didn't want to fracture their cooperation over such a hypothesis, so she had decisively refused Tan Ji.

"Tan Ji agreed with me at the time. He was usually quiet and mostly followed my orders, so I mistakenly thought he had listened to me this time as well."

Wang Quan's voice paused before she continued: "Later, while the two teams were exploring separately, although having Tan Ji in your team was the most logical split, I kept feeling something was off. So I thought about it and circled back here to check. I didn't expect to see this."

She closed her eyes and sighed: "Since Tan Ji made the first move, you aren't wrong for killing him. This is all my fault. If only I had paid more attention to him, if only I had arrived sooner. I arrived too late."

Jing Nu said expressionlessly: "Indeed, you arrived too late."

The reclamation team wandered the grey areas year-round, facing all kinds of dangers. Wang Quan could become the captain not just because of her Tier 4 danger sense, but also because of her sharp observation and brains. Yet the two teams had been separated for nearly three hours.

Would such a sharp and intelligent woman only realize something was wrong and come to check after three hours? Perhaps there was a slight possibility, but Ye Yu didn't believe it. She preferred to believe that Wang Quan indeed disagreed with Tan Ji's idea, refused his suggestion, but harbored a fluke mentality, letting Tan Ji act.

Wang Quan refused Tan Ji, and Tan Ji went alone to his death at their hands. Wang Quan did nothing, so this naturally had nothing to do with her and Wu Dazhuang. But if Tan Ji had successfully subdued them, they could have used human lives to test whether that rule was right or wrong.

People always harbored fluke mentalities, especially in such desperate situations. What if? What if it was right? Then wouldn't they be able to leave this wretched place immediately?

Wang Quan heard the other party's dissatisfaction. She knew Wang Jing was an extremely intelligent woman, and now, she had another label: an extremely capable and ruthless woman.

Her true body wasn't even in this Guaidan domain, yet she could use extraordinary abilities from afar, leading her two useless younger siblings to counter-kill Tan Ji. This battle record truly shocked Wang Quan. One had to know that Tan Ji possessed high-speed movement; his attack power wasn't high, but he was always the least injured in their team.

She had estimated that even if Tan Ji failed, he would at most get beaten up. As long as he fled in time, he would be fine, since two ordinary people weren't to be feared, and a mirror couldn't grow legs to chase him. But the reality far exceeded her imagination; Tan Ji was dead. Not only dead, but even his Guaidan Core had been gouged out. Meanwhile, the two ordinary people, though covered in injuries, weren't dead, and even had clean bandages and medicine.

Wang Quan's gaze swept over the bandages and medicine beside Tang Nianke. These must have been stored in Wang Jing's mirror space, right? But when she had entered earlier, she hadn't seen any of these. When she, Tan Ji, and Wu Dazhuang were injured, they had only used dirty rags to bind their wounds. Wang Jing hadn't shown any reaction to this.

Clearly, Wang Jing hadn't trusted or let her guard down around them from the start. When introducing her abilities, she had very likely hidden her true trump cards and killer moves.

Fear Value +100

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+10

...

Thinking of this, Wang Quan became even more wary of Wang Jing, but she didn't show it, as she always knew what she wanted.

"This Guaidan Factory is extremely dangerous. Only by combining our strength do we have a ray of hope. Wu Dazhuang and I highly value the opportunity to cooperate with you, and we hope you won't let Tan Ji's matter affect our relationship."

As Wang Quan said this, her gaze swept over the two Guaidan Cores in Wang Xia's hand and moved away. Since her side was in the wrong, she quickly calculated the gains and losses in her mind, and to avoid conflict with Wang Jing, she chose to ignore and tacitly approve.

"Wang Quan! What are you saying? They killed Tan Ji!"

Looking at Tan Ji's dead body, Wu Dazhuang's face was ugly, his fists clenched. His heart held not only anger but also deep wariness.

Fear Value +150

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+50

...

Wang Xia and Tang Nianke also looked at Wang Quan in surprise. The two poor souls, who had just finished fighting with their muscles tensed, ready for Wang Quan and Wu Dazhuang to cause trouble at any moment, hadn't expected to hear such words.

Wang Xia didn't even find the slimy, squirming Guaidan Core in his hand disgusting anymore. He couldn't describe his feelings, only wanting to question the short-haired woman: *Wasn't Tan Ji your teammate? Although this was indeed Tan Ji's fault, how could you... say such words so easily?*

During the day, Wang Quan had introduced that Tan Ji had been in her team for three years. So what did those three years of team camaraderie count for? Did they count as seaweed?!

Tang Nianke looked at Wang Quan, who calmly stopped Wu Dazhuang again, and then at Jing Nu. Clearly, the former was her fellow human, yet at this moment, she felt extremely fortunate that her protector was Jing Nu. With Mr. System's promise, she and Wang Xia would absolutely not face such a situation, but thinking about it, wasn't this also a form of human tragedy?

"I agree with your view. The most important thing now is to find the correct survival rules." The pale, wax-like woman in the mirror spoke coldly, indifferent to human thoughts. She only cared about the mission Mr. System had given her.

"We plan to return to the workers' dormitory. What about you?"

"Why go back to the workers' dormitory?"

Hearing Wang Jing express her willingness to continue cooperating, Wang Quan breathed a sigh of relief. Her team had already lost two members, leaving only her and Wu Dazhuang. She truly needed Wang Jing, a powerful and intelligent partner, right now.

"To find the worker manuals," Jing Nu said decisively. "Ordinary workers and outstanding workers are required to carry their manuals with them. But when we stripped the night-shift workers' clothes, we didn't find their manuals. One possibility is that night-shift workers don't have manuals. The second possibility is that their manuals aren't on them."

Wang Quan's eyes lit up. "We went to Workshop C earlier and didn't see any place to store manuals. So if the night-shift workers have manuals, the most likely place is their dormitory!"

"Ordinary workers are on floors one, two, and three. Outstanding workers are on floors four and five. Night-shift workers are on floor six. Going up to floor six requires passing through two large iron gates... To be honest, based on my experience, I previously felt that with the layout of the workers' dormitory, the sixth floor is highly likely to hide some secrets. But we hadn't explored the night-shift workers' situation on the sixth floor before, so we temporarily put it aside."

Wang Quan looked toward Jing Nu. "After dawn, when the night-shift workers return from their shift, the iron gate to the sixth floor will be locked by the dormitory manager. If we want to go, we had better act now to avoid those black-clothed workers. However, the Shi Miao are a problem. We need to find a way to avoid them first."

Seeing Wang Quan and Wang Jing talking back and forth, Wu Dazhuang, who was used to following Wang Quan's lead, fell silent. Seeing this, Wang Xia couldn't help but offer a suggestion. "Why not use the Happy Sausages?"

Wang Quan mused: "Are you saying we use the Happy Sausages to lure the Shi Miao, just like we lured the black-clothed workers earlier?"

Jing Nu said indifferently: "No need for such trouble. Just walk over. I am eighty percent certain those Shi Miao won't attack you this time."

"Why won't they? The Shi Miao..." Wang Quan instinctively wanted to ask why, but then she suddenly realized the reason. She quickly touched her face, which was covered by a black mask. Her voice turned strained.

"The Shi Miao didn't actively attack the black-clothed workers before, probably because the black-clothed workers' mutation was too high, and the Shi Miao saw them as their own kind. So, you mean we are already like those black-clothed workers now?!"

The others also looked horrified. Jing Nu looked at Wang Quan: "You and Wu Dazhuang have the highest level of mutation, followed by my younger siblings. Fortunately, you all still retain your sanity, but I don't know how much longer this clarity can be maintained, so we had better act quickly."

Sắc mặt Vương Toàn và Ngô Đạt Tráng nháy mắt tái nhợt. Trước đó họ còn ít nhiều bi thống vì cái chết của Ngô Kiệt và Đàm Kỷ, nhưng hiện tại thì tốt rồi, họ không cần nghĩ đến những điều đó, bởi vì nếu họ lại không trốn thoát được, thì họ liền có thể tự mình đi xuống bầu bạn với Ngô Kiệt và Đàm Kỷ!

*

"Meow-ow!!! Meow-ow!!!"

The Shi Miao, in various states of death, were still surrounding the dormitory, letting out sharp, screeching cries. The previously open windows they had swarmed through into the dormitory were now silent.

Tang Nianke's gaze swept over, able to see the bloody claw marks on the wall outside the window under the moonlight, like brilliant red plum blossoms. Then she withdrew her gaze, catching sight of a white shadow, which made her stop.

"What's wrong?"

Wang Xia leaned over to look but saw nothing.

Tang Nianke said doubtfully: "I think I just saw a rabbit. It was very fast, jumping away instantly."

Wu Dazhuang tried to find humor in the misery: "Heh, there are indeed many wild animals in the suburbs. This ruined factory has both wild cats and wild rabbits."

Wang Quan urged: "Hurry up. If we don't escape, we'll become a member of those wild cats, no, a member of those Happy Sausages. Ah, when the time comes, ten catties of lean meat finely minced without a speck of fat, ten catties of fat meat finely minced without a speck of lean, and ten catties of cartilage finely minced without a speck of meat."

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines and quickened their pace.

Fortunately, just as Jing Nu had thought, because Tang Nianke and the others had mutated too much, when they walked toward the dormitory in their black uniforms, the Shi Miao only sniffed them suspiciously before ignoring them.

Wang Xia held his breath all the way into the dormitory. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he turned and saw the three black-clothed workers still "bang bang bang" knocking on Wang Quan's dormitory door in the first-floor hallway. He was so scared he held his breath again. Fortunately, those three black-clothed workers were dedicated to knocking on the door for twenty years and had no intention of sparing them a glance. But everyone knew this wasn't a good thing; the attitude of the Shi Miao and the black-clothed workers confirmed Jing Nu's words—their time was indeed running out.

They hurried upstairs, heading straight for the sixth floor. Wang Xia and Tang Nianke had just gone through a fierce battle; even with bandages and medicine, they couldn't recover instantly. At this moment, having lost too much blood, their faces were pale, and their calves trembled from climbing the stairs.

Wang Xia had it the worst. Tang Nianke's extraordinary ability was related to physical enhancement, so her physical quality was much better. Wang Xia still had his ordinary physical quality, and because he hadn't eaten lunch and had vomited his dinner, he was so hungry his chest was practically stuck to his back. His stomach rumbled as if singing a song of ambush.

Because he was holding the mirror, Jing Nu seemed annoyed by the noise, finally offering to give him some food if he was hungry.

"Thank you, Jing Jie, but no need," Wang Xia said with a bitter face. "I'll probably just vomit it up anyway, so let's not bother."

Ye Yu: ... *This kid indeed has a very clear self-awareness.*

The Shi Miao outside were crying fiercely. Wang Xia couldn't help but ask curiously: "These Shi Miao hate humans so much, why don't they go to Workshop C to take revenge?"

Jing Nu: "They might see the black-clothed workers as their own kind, but the most likely reason is fear."

Wang Xia instinctively asked: "Fear of what?"

Jing Nu: "Fear that the chef will kill them again."

Wang Xia fell silent, and the stairwell returned to the sound of everyone's hurried breathing as they climbed. Previously, Wang Xia and Tang Nianke had been terrified by those scary Shi Miao, almost dying in their mouths. They had always thought the Shi Miao were the most dangerous and terrifying creatures in this Guaidan Factory. Now they suddenly realized that the scary-looking Shi Miao were actually at the very bottom of this factory, and the entire operation of the Guaidan Factory was built on their corpses.

At night, the iron gate to the sixth floor was indeed unlocked, and everyone slipped in smoothly. Since the night-shift workers were all outside, the hallway was silent, except for the faint cat cries from outside, making everyone tense.

The dormitory environment was dilapidated. Wang Xia could have kicked open the old wooden doors, but to minimize noise, Wu Dazhuang used his lock-picking skill to open the nearest door. Everyone pushed the door open and began searching. Sure enough, they found a small notebook in the drawer of a long table.

Everyone quickly opened the "Night-Shift Worker Behavior Manual." Wang Quan also carefully pulled out her "Outstanding Worker Behavior Manual," and had Tang Nianke pull out her "Ordinary Worker Behavior Manual" to compare them, trying to find the three biggest differences in the shortest time.

The first few pages of rules were exactly the same, all praising the factory's benevolence, stating that workers should be grateful, work hard, and not think about what the factory could bring to them, but what they could bring to the factory.

However, as they flipped to the back, everyone's expressions changed. They passed the three manuals around, flipping through them in disbelief, until Wu Dazhuang slammed his manual onto the table.

"What the hell is this! The rules in here are exactly the same?! What clues are we supposed to find? There's absolutely no difference!"

Jing Nu frowned: "Are you sure they are exactly the same?"

Wu Dazhuang felt he was going crazy, his tone extremely harsh. "You don't believe me? The four of us with eight eyes have looked at them, not a single word is different!"

Saying this, he slumped onto the lower bunk, feeling utterly hopeless.

Having watched the show for so long, Wu Xi let out a snort: *Another dead end. It seems luck is no longer favoring you this time. Once Wang Xia and Tang Nianke die here, let's see how you play the high-and-mighty Guaidan King in front of Hu Kailiang and Zhao Yanchun!*

Wu Xi wagged his cat tail smugly, eager to see the drama queen's disguise stripped away and her posturing exposed! He could imagine it would be highly entertaining!

Ye Yu also knew the crisis was significant, and Jing Nu frowned in deep thought. The night-shift workers and day-shift workers were so different; how could their worker rules be the same? How could there be no difference? She felt her line of thinking shouldn't be wrong. Where was the problem...

Ye Yu quickly synthesized the information in her head, trying to find a breakthrough. During this, her gaze swept over the covers of the three books on the mattress, and she was surprised to find the words on them were identical. The titles of all three books were "Ordinary Worker Behavior Manual"; none of them was the "Night-Shift Worker Behavior Manual"!